Lachlan Pye, a 17-year-old spearfisherman, experienced a frightening encounter with a bull shark that “came out of nowhere” and bit off his right swim fin. The young diver thought he would lose his foot.
The harrowing incident occurred last Saturday off Lucinda, Queensland, Australia. Pye was diving with a friend as another friend remained on the boat to keep an eye out for such an incident as this.
It started when a friend shot a golden snapper that fell off his spear, Pye explained to USA Today/For The Win Outdoors.
“I went down for a look and saw it just sitting on the bottom,” Pye said. “I took the easy shot and started to come up. As I came up, this bull shark charged me. It came out of nowhere.”
The shark wasn’t interested in the fish but Pye’s swim fin, which it bit into and pulled off his foot, as seen in the video:
“I thought I was going to lose my foot to be honest with you,” Pye told For The Win Outdoors. “I thought it was going to try to bite me again. I was just kicking up trying to get away from it.
“When I came in, I was really freaking out and was in shock.”
Also on FTW Outdoors: Great white shark chased by prey in odd encounter (video)
Pye lost the swim fin, but not the fish or speargun.
At first, he also lost his desire to go diving again, but he regained it when people told him his fins had attracted the shark with their flashy, white rails along the sides.
Pye’s mother, Karen Wood, probably desires he not go diving again, however.
“When he came home, he was quite vague and sketchy about the details,” Wood told For The Win Outdoors. “I was having birthday drinks and he casually told me a shark bit his new fin. I asked him, did it do much damage and he’s like, yeah, it took it. Didn’t go into too much detail. Then he showed me his video the next day and I nearly died from a heart attack once I saw how serious it was and how big the shark was.”
Photos courtesy of Lachlan Pye and ViralHog.